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The oneness of Allah

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The Oneness of God The Believers AttitudeIntroductionIt is a known fact that every language has one or more terms that are used in reference to Godand sometimes to lesser deities. This is not the case with Allah. Allah is the personal name ofthe One true God. Nothing else can be called Allah. The term has no plural or gender. This showsits uniqueness when compared with the word "god," which can be made plural, as in "gods," ormade feminine, as in "goddess." It is interesting to notice that Allah is the personal name of Godin Aramaic, the language of Jesus and a sister language of Arabic.The One true God is areflection of the unique concept that Islam associates with God. To a Muslim, Allah is theAlmighty Creator and Sustainer of the universe, Who is similar to nothing, and nothing iscomparable to Him. The Prophet Muhammad was asked by his contemporaries about Allah; theanswer came directly from God Himself in the form of a short chapter of the Quran, which isconsidered to be the essence of the unity or the motto of monotheism. This is chapter 112,which reads:" In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate. Say (O Muhammad), He isGod, the One God, the Everlasting Refuge, who has not begotten, nor has been begotten, andequal to Him is not anyone". Some non-Muslims allege that God in Islam is a stern and cruelGod who demands to be obeyed fully and is not loving and kind. Nothing could be farther fromthe truth than this allegation. It is enough to know that, with the exception of one, each of the114 chapters of the Quran begins with the verse " In the name of God, the Merciful, theCompassionate".

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In one of the sayings of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), we are told that " God is more loving andkind than a mother to her dear child". On the other hand, God is also Just.Hence, evildoers and sinners must have their share of punishment, and the virtuous must haveGods bounties and favors. Actually, Gods attribute of Mercy has full manifestation in Hisattribute of Justice. People suffering throughout their lives for His sake should not receivesimilar treatment from their Lord as people who oppress and exploit others their whole lives.Expecting similar treatment for them would amount to negating the very belief in theaccountability of man in the Hereafter and thereby negate all the incentives for a moral andvirtuous life in this world. The following Quranic verses are very clear and straightforward in thisrespect.Verily, for the Righteous are gardens of Delight, in the Presence of their Lord. Shall We then treatthe people of Faith like the people of Sin? What is the matter with you? How judge you?Islam rejects characterizing God in any human form or depicting Him as favoring certainindividuals or nations on the basis of wealth, power or race. He created the human-beings asequals. They may distinguish themselves and get His favor through virtue and piety only.

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The concepts that God rested on the seventh day of creation, that God wrestled with one of Hissoldiers, that God is an envious plotter against mankind, and that God is incarnate in any humanbeing are considered blasphemy from the Islamic point of view.The unique usage of Allah as a personal name of God is a reflection of Islams emphasis on thepurity of the belief in God that is the essence of the message of all Gods messengers. Becauseof this, Islam considers associating any deity or personality with God as a deadly sin that Godwill never forgive, despite the fact that He may forgive all other sins.The Creator must be of a different nature from the things created because if He is of the samenature as they are, He will be temporal and will therefore need a maker. It follows that nothingis like Him. If the maker is not temporal, then he must be eternal. But if he is eternal, he cannotbe caused, and if nothing caused Him to come into existence, nothing outside Him causes Himto continue to exist, which means that he must be self-sufficient. And if He does not depend onanything for the continuance of His own existence, then this existence can have no end. TheCreator is therefore eternal and everlasting: "He is the First and the Last".He is Self-sufficient or Self-subsistent, or, to use a Quranic term, Al-Qayyum The Creator doesnot create only in the sense of bringing things into being, He. also preserves them and takesthem out of existence and is the ultimate cause of whatever happens to them." God is the Creator of everything. He is the guardian over everything. Unto Him belong the keysof the heavens and the earth" (39:62-63)." No creature is there crawling on the earth, but its provision rests on God. He knows its lodgingplace and its repository" (11:16).

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Gods AttributesIf the Creator is Eternal and Everlasting, then His attributes must also be eternal and everlasting.He should not lose any of His attributes nor acquire new ones. If this is so, then his attributes areabsolute. Can there be more than one Creator with such absolute attributes? Can there be, forexample, two absolutely powerful Creators? A moments thought shows that this is not feasible.The Quran summarizes this argument in the following verses:" God has not taken to Himself anyson, nor is there any god with Him: for then each god would have taken of that which he createdand some of them would have risen up over others" (23:91)." And why, were there gods in earth and heaven other than God, they (heaven and earth) wouldsurely go to ruin" (21:22).The Oneness of GodThe Quran reminds us of the falsity of all alleged gods. To the worshippers of man-made objects itasks:" Do you worship what you have carved yourself" (37:95). " Or have you taken unto yourselfothers beside Him to be your protectors, even such as have no power either for good or for harmto themselves" (13:16).To the worshippers of heavenly bodies it cites the story of Abraham:" When night outspread overhim, he saw a star and said: This is my Lord. But when it set, he said: I love not the setters. Whenhe saw the moon rising, he said: This is my Lord. But when it set, he said: If my Lord does not guideme, I shall surely be of the people gone astray. When he saw the sun rising, he said: This is myLord; this is greater. But when it set, he said: O my people, surely I quit that which you associate, Ihave turned my face to Him who originated the heavens and the earth; a man of pure faith, I amnot one of the idolators" (6:76-79).

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The Believers AttitudeIn order to be a Muslim, that is, to surrender oneself to God, it is necessary to believe in theoneness of God, in the sense of His being the only Creator, Preserver, Nourisher, etc. But this belief,later called Tawhid Ar-Rububiyyah, is not enough. Many of the idolators knew and believed thatonly the Supreme God could do all this. But this was not enough to make them Muslims. To tawhidar-rububiyyah, one must add tawhid al-uluhiyyah. That is, one acknowledges the fact that it is Godalone who deserves to be worshipped, and thus abstains from worshipping any other thing orbeing.Having achieved this knowledge of the one true God, man should constantly have faith in Him, andshould allow nothing to induce him to deny truth.When faith enters a persons heart, it causes certain mental states that result in certain actions.Taken together, these mental states and actions are the proof for the true faith. The Prophet said:"Faith is that which resides firmly in the heart and which is proved by deeds".Foremost among those mental stated is the feeling of gratitude towards God, which could be saidto be the essence of ibada (worship).The feeling of gratitude is so important that a non-believer is called kafir, which means one whodenies a truth and also one who is ungrateful.A believer loves, and is grateful to God for the bounties He bestowed upon him, but being aware ofthe fact that his good deeds, whether mental or physical, are far from being commensurate withDivine favors, he is always anxious lest God should punish him, here or in the Hereafter. He,therefore, fears Him, surrenders himself to Him and serves Him with great humility. One cannot bein such a mental state without being almost all the time mindful of God. Remembering God is thusthe life force of faith, without which it fades and withers away.

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The Quran tries to promote this feeling of gratitude by repeating the attributes of God veryfrequently. We find most of these attributes mentioned together in the following verses of theQuran:" He is God; there is no god but He. He is the Knower of the unseen and the visible; He isthe All-Merciful, the All-Compassionate. He is God; there is no god but He. He is the King, theAll-Holy, the All-Peace, the Guardian of the Faith, the All-Preserver, the All-Mighty, the All-Compeller, the All-Sublime. Glory be to God, above that they associate! He is God, the Creator,the Maker, the Shaper. To Him belong the Names Most Beautiful. All that is in the heavens andthe earth magnifies Him; He is the Almighty, the All-Wise" (59:22-24)." There is no god but He, the Living, the Everlasting. Slumber seizes Him not, nor sleep. To Himbelongs all that is in the heavens and the earth. Who is there that shall intercede with Him saveby His leave? He knows what lies before them, and what is after them, and they comprehendnot anything of His knowledge save such as He wills. His throne comprises the heavens andearth. The preserving of them oppresses Him not; He is the All-High, the All-Glorious" (2:255).People of the Book, go not beyond the bounds in your religion, and say not as to God but thetruth." The Messiah, Jesus, son of Mary, was only the Messenger of God, and His Word that Hecommitted to Mary, and a Spirit from Him. So believe in God and His Messengers, and say not"Three". Refrain; better it is for you. God is only one God. Glory be to Him — (He is) abovehaving a son" (4:171).